


one thousand paper cranes.

by babybrotherdean



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Hurt, Hurt Dean Winchester, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 20:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12943062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babybrotherdean/pseuds/babybrotherdean
Summary: He’s never been much for reading, but there’s something aboutSadako and the Thousand Paper Cranesthat manages to draw him in. Maybe it’s reading about a girl his age fighting such a hopeless battle. Maybe it’s the reminder that not all monsters have claws and teeth, and not all of them can be salted and burned away.Maybe it’s the legend that if she finishes her thousand paper cranes, she will be granted one wish.





	one thousand paper cranes.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this almost two years ago, but I just remembered it existed today and realized that I never posted it on AO3. So... here it is. 
> 
> This is just pain and suffering. Loads of pain and suffering.

It’s during his three-week stay in Akron, Ohio in the fifth grade that Dean Winchester is introduced to Sadako Sasaki. She is twelve years old, a member of her school’s relay team, and has been diagnosed with leukemia caused by nuclear fallout. 

He’s never been much for reading, but there’s something about  _Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes_ that manages to draw him in. Maybe it’s reading about a girl his age fighting such a hopeless battle. Maybe it’s the reminder that not all monsters have claws and teeth, and not all of them can be salted and burned away.

Maybe it’s the legend that if she finishes her thousand paper cranes, she will be granted one wish.

They relocate to Colorado before the class finishes the book, but Dean snatches a copy on his way out because he can’t stand not knowing how it ends. He’s curled up in the back seat of the car when she dies with only 644 cranes and cries himself to sleep.

He dreams of millions of paper cranes riding the wind, a thousand colours of tiny wings that drift towards a setting sun.

* * *

Dean is going to Hell in four months and Sam is terrified.

He’s edgy and snappish because his brother doesn’t seem to care. Dean lives every day like it’s his last and gives him lazy grins when the subject is brought up because he claims that he isn’t scared. Sam knows his brother well enough to know it isn’t true, and it is endlessly infuriating that Dean continues to lie to him.

The first paper crane he finds is hardly recognizable as such. It’s made of a napkin from a diner three states back, its wings are lopsided, and its neck is too long. Sam catches himself fiddling with it where it sits in the car’s trunk, trying to smooth it out before he realizes how ridiculous it is. He passes it off as a fluke and throws it out, well-aware of how Dean feels about litter in his car.

“Did you see a napkin somewhere?” his brother asks him later, and the white-faced fear doesn’t suit him. “In the car?”

Sam tells him about trashing it and Dean nearly breaks his nose.

He leaves the cranes alone after that.

They seem to multiply by the day, appearing in the trunk, the back seat, the glove compartment. They pile up in motel rooms before they leave, and Sam can only assume that they’ve been carefully packed away in the Impala. He doesn’t ask questions, and he never sees his brother folding any paper, but he can’t help his curiosity, only rivalled by his concern.

“Maybe you could show me how to make them,” he offers one day over breakfast, and Dean doesn’t bother asking him to clarify. They’ve been getting better, Sam’s noticed, and he figures maybe joining in will help him to crack this new mystery his brother’s presented him with.

But Dean shakes his head and doesn’t look him in the eye as he pushes his food around his plate. It’s uncharacteristic and Sam’s throat feels tight. “Doesn’t count if someone else makes ‘em,” is almost too quiet for him to catch, but it’s enough for him to start looking.

It isn’t hard to find the legend about the thousand paper cranes, and Sam thinks that he’s going to cry.

“How many?” he asks when he sees Dean next, and he can’t bring himself to look at his brother. Thinks that he won’t be able to stop himself if he breaks down now. “How many do you have?”

Dean’s quiet for several seconds, and Sam’s almost worried that his question will be ignored. That Dean will continue on his quiet endeavour and suffer in silence as he is wont to do, and that he will be left wondering no matter how this ends.

“Four-hundred twenty-six,” comes the answer, though, barely audible, and Dean laughs, bittersweet. Sounds young and soft and scared. “You think I’ll make it?”

He doesn’t.

The hellhounds steal his brother away and leave Sam with nine-hundred thirteen paper cranes and a car that feels empty without the taste of Dean’s smile.

Nine-hundred twelve paper cranes burn in place of Dean’s body because his brother has never asked for anything but this, and Sam will never forgive them for failing him.

One lonely paper napkin crane, fished from a trash bin four months ago and gently, lovingly repaired, takes up permanent residence in the passenger’s seat. 

Sam drives.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :>


End file.
